Chapter 112: Meal Ticket
After eating and drinking enough, I washed my own bowl with mineral water and put it away in the space. As for the remaining bowls, forget it, it's still quite cold in the mountains at night, besides, aren't the little ones all clean? It looks like it won't be much different from washing with water, so let's just continue using them tomorrow.
On the bonfire, some dry firewood was added to make the fire burn more vigorously. Ju An opened his sleeping bag and crawled in, leaving only his head exposed outside to prepare for sleep. Not long after lying down, he felt a cool breeze blowing into his neck, which was quite uncomfortable. He called Teddy over to let him sleep beside his neck, using Teddy's thick fat to block the wind for himself. On the other side, he called Garlic over and Wu Song snuggled between Ju An's neck and Garlic's back. Although the long tail was a bit thin, it could still serve as a makeshift scarf for Ju An, which was better than nothing.
Everything was settled, and the feeling of wind entering the back of the neck could no longer be felt. Then, looking around the bonfire, four little foxes were burying their heads in their tails, lying by the bonfire and preparing to enter a dreamland. Their round and bulging bellies made Ju An feel a pang of envy - these guys were eating well, it seemed. One of the little foxes even yawned with its eyes closed, then stuck its face back into its own tail, smacking its lips before doing so, as if it had dreamed of something delicious again.
Teddy comrade ran a lot of road today, and was a bit tired, even started to snore, two small paws holding his head, fluffy belly expanding and contracting while sleeping really sweetly, cowboy hat stuck on his head, closed his eyes contentedly, listening to the crackling sound of the bonfire from time to time, occasionally hearing two birds chirping, after a while, Teddy also entered dreamland with several foodies, only Tiger Head slept vigilantly, ears always straight up, monitoring the surroundings.
As I was dozing off, I felt a cool breeze on the right side of my neck, so I turned my head and opened my eyes to look around. To my surprise, Teddy had disappeared! No wonder my neck felt chilly - even Little Wu Song's tail was gone. Only Garlic Head was still lying there, stretching his neck to vigilantly scan the surroundings. When he saw me move, he even stuck out his head to lick my face. These two are quite something! Tonight, I'll put Garlic Head on windward side, Teddy is too unreliable. Next time when we're looking for help at the ranch, we should add a condition: check if they eat a lot and then collapse - those who do seem a bit untrustworthy. We need people like Tiger Head, who work diligently without complaint.
Rubbed his eyes, sat up from the sleeping bag, the sun had already risen high, looked around and saw that the bonfire had gone out, leaving only a pile of pale wood ash, with a few wisps of blue smoke still rising. The old fox was lying not far away, watching three little foxes playing together, Teddy was trying to knock down a small pine tree with his big butt, humming a few times, then looking at the little foxes, roaring twice, and continuing to press the tree, completely unlike yesterday's scaredy-cat who clung to someone's leg. Wu Song held a small fruit in his hand, squatting beside him watching Teddy perform the usual bear behavior of showing off his strength by pressing trees.
After getting up, I went to the creek and tidied myself up. When I looked up, I found a group of deer and several wild oxen drinking water. After careful observation, none of the male deer had antlers with more than eight forks. I shook my head in disappointment, it seems that I still need to continue walking into the mountains. You say, wanting to get an ornament is so difficult.
Back at the campsite, he found an empty space and started practicing his fist and footwork. After repeating it several times, he began to coordinate with the space, moving in and out of it. After a while, he finished his practice and took a deep breath. As he looked around, he saw that a family of foxes, including Tiger Head and Garlic Head, were all staring at him with puzzled eyes, probably thinking: "Is this guy crazy? He keeps disappearing and reappearing!" Meanwhile, the two experienced warriors, Wu Song and Teddy, were playing happily on their own.
Don't mind those silly guys, Ju An walked to the side of the fire pit and continued to add some firewood, this time putting in a bit less. He even made himself a cup of hot cocoa on the rack, preparing to boost his calories. When the bonfire reignited, Ju An pulled out a large bucket of condensed milk from space and poured half a bowl into each small basin. Of course, being biased, he always gave Tiger Head a little more, while the guest family got just a small half-bowl each - after all, they had smaller heads. As for Wu Song, he didn't even get any, and was instead given a large apple to quietly gnaw on in the corner, completely forgetting that his own Teddy at home not only had full bowls of condensed milk but also two large pears.
After finishing the hot cocoa, Ju An went behind a big tree and dug a hole to relieve himself and clear his intestines, then buried it. Then he packed up his things and prepared to continue on into the mountains. Just as everything was all set, and he was about to pour water on the campfire, he suddenly remembered that the roasted squirrel from yesterday was still buried in the ground. He used a small branch to dig out the well-roasted squirrel, which was only slightly larger than a mouse, and threw it to a few small foxes. The little foxes sniffed and then fought over it, and Teddy, seeing others fighting for food, happily threw away the pear in his hand and tried to join in on the fun. However, the little foxes were much more agile than him, and after circling around them for half a day, he couldn't even get a hold of a squirrel's tail, so he could only hum and return, continuing to deal with the pear.
Saddle up the bean grass and Tuck, bundle various luggage on Tuck's back, then carefully check the fire pit to see if it's really extinguished. Then put Wu Song on Tuck's back and let Wu Song drive. Mounting the bean grass, pretending to hold a telescope, looking around at the deer by the stream, confirming that there is no large male deer with ten or more branches, then urging the bean grass, calling out to Tiger Head and Teddy, continuing to advance towards the big mountain.
Slowly urging the bean grass to walk a distance, it was found that a family of foxes was also following behind, and several little foxes were playing with Teddy from time to time. Of course, even if they were given a few more guts, they wouldn't dare to tease Tiger Three.
"Hey, big brother! Big sister, we're leaving, don't bother seeing us off, just go back home quickly!" He didn't care if the fox could understand or not. Anyway, with a good attitude and soft voice, it was almost as if he was competing with the four hungry mouths inside. Ju An really wanted to get rid of this family. These were four mouths waiting to be fed, damn it! I came to the mountains to hunt, not to deliver warmth like some charity organization or whatever."
Just then, the old fox rushed towards Ju An and called out twice, followed by two more calls. A few smaller foxes that had fallen behind caught up, and Ju An thought to herself, "It seems they can't be driven away after all." She could only let them follow her. After some careful consideration, she thought that if she were in their shoes and had found a long-term and stable source of food, she wouldn't give it up easily either. This thought made her feel much better.
Riding on a bean grass for a while, I suddenly thought of the modern Peking Opera "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy" that my old dad at home often sang.
Crossing the forest and traversing the snowy plains
The vital energy soars up to the sky.
Ommm~~~~~~!
"Humming a few notes, followed by a cough, Ju An patted his chest on the horseback, slowly breathed out and said with frustration: 'Damn it, the pitch is too high, can't go up anymore'".
Teddy occasionally drilled into a small bush, eating the mushrooms and wild fruits in the mountain forest. As long as Teddy saw that he could eat the mushrooms, Ju An also jumped off the horse to pick some and put them in the bag on Tark's back. Each mushroom was almost as big as Ju An's palm, like a small umbrella growing on the roots of a large tree. While picking mushrooms, Ju An thought that at noon, she would stew a small chicken mushroom soup. Fortunately, she had foreseen this and had a ready-cooked small chicken in her space. Then, from her space, she took out a big fish to roast, sprinkling pepper on it...
With momentum, the small hunting party of tourists hastened their pace towards the next campsite, a small lake on the map. According to Old Thomas, this small lake was actually a warm spring, with water depths of less than one meter at its deepest point and temperatures around ten degrees Celsius year-round.
It's not clear whether it was because of the slow speed or Old Thomas' declining memory due to old age, but An and his party didn't arrive at the small lake until almost two o'clock in the afternoon. Even so, An had to correct their route several times with the help of instruments, otherwise it would have been uncertain whether they could make it here by nightfall.
As the camp arrived at noon, Ju An began to unload things and freed two horses. Then he started to prepare lunch, first putting a small chicken stewed with mushrooms on the bonfire. He came to the lake and tested the water temperature with his hand, which was quite good, about 10 degrees higher than the mountain's air temperature. The entire 40-50 square meter lake surface was misty, but the water was clear and transparent, very beautiful. Ju An found a large stone by the lake and began to undress, preparing to swim in the lake.
After swimming for a while, he took out a bottle of beer from the space and poured it into the stone, then put his head in the water. After a while, he stretched out of the water surface, wiped the water droplets on his head, took a sip of beer, and sighed: "This is what life is all about."
Just as Teddy had been enjoying himself for a short while, he suddenly jumped off the rock into the lake and paddled with his little legs to get close to Ju An. As a result, Ju An's beer cup was filled with water, and on top of that, several foxes were calling out from the rocks, making Ju An lose all interest and secretly resentful.
